p 

/54- 



A MEMOIR 



OF THE LATE 



HON. PETER McCALL, 

(Chancellor of the Law Association of Philadelphia.) 



Read before the Association, 

at the Hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 

on Thursday Evening, January 13, 1881, 



Hon. Isaac Hazlehurst. 



A MEMOIR 



OF THE LATE 



HON. PETER McCALL, 

(Chauctllor of the Law Association of Philadelphia). 



Read before the Association, 

at the Hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 

on Thursday Evening, January 13, 1 88 1, 



Hon. Isaac Hazlehurst. 






IN exckang* 



No. 208 South Fifth Street, 
Philadelphia, November 6, 1880. 

Hon. ISAAC HAZLEHURST, 
My Dear Sir: 

At the meeting of the Law Association held 
upon the 5th instant to take action upon the death of Mr. 
Peter McCall, its Chancellor, the following Resolution was 
unanimously adopted : 

" Resolved., That Mr. Isaac Hazlehurst be invited to read 
a memoir of Mr. McCall before the Law Association, at such 
time as may be convenient to him." 

Hoping that you will gratify the Association by granting 
their request, I remain 

Your obedient servant, • 

A. SYDNEY BIDDLE, 

Secretary Law Associaiion. 



No. 508 Walnut Street, 
Philadelphia, November /j, 18S0. 

To A. SYDNEY BIDDLE, Esq., Secretary, etc. 

Mv Dear Sir: 

I am in receipt of your communication of the 
6th inst., enclosing a Resolution of the Law Association that 
I should be "invited to read a memoir of Mr. McCall," the 
late Chancellor. 

I shall take a peculiar pleasure in attempting to discharge 
the duty to which I have been assigned, and I will as soon as 
possible comply with the terms of the Resolution by naming 
whatever time and place shall best serve the convenience of 
the Association. 

,1 remain, sir, very truly and respectfully, 

ISAAC HAZLEHURST. 



& 



No. 528 Walnut Street, 
PJiiladelpJiia, January /j, 1S81 . 

Hon. ISAAC HAZLEHURST, 
My Dear Sir : 

It is my pleasant duty to advise you that at a 
special meeting of the Law Association, held on the 13th inst., 
the following Resolution was unanimously adopted: 

"Resolved, That the thanks of the Law Association be 
tendered to the Hon. Isaac Hazlehurst for his eloquent and 
instructive tribute to the memory of its late Chancellor, 
Mr. McCall ; and that he be requested to furnish a copy of 
the address to the Association for publication." 

I trust that it will be entirely agreeable for you to comply 
with this request. 

Very respectfully yours, 

ROBERT D. COXE, 

Secretary Laiv Association. 



No. 2020 Spruce Street, 
Philadelphia, January i/, iS8r. 

To ROBERT D. COXE, Esq., Secretary Law Association. 
My Dear Sir : 

I willingly comply with the request of the 
Law Association as expressed in the Resolution adopted on 
the occasion to which you refer ; and I beg to thank you at 
the same time for the courteous terms in which you have 
communicated it to me. 

I remain, sir, very truly yours, 

ISAAC HAZLEHURST. 



I THINK, sir, it speaks well for an association that 
has counted so many learned and distinguished 
men among- its members that it has united as a 
body in this tribute of respect to the memory of the 
great and good man who has passed away — and 
that the people of Philadelphia have good reason 
to congratulate themselves upon the opportunity 
your invitation has afforded them to testify by this 
distinguished representation to the value of his civic 
and patriotic services. But you have forestalled me, 
Mr. Chancellor, for you have pronounced yourself 
the highest eulogy upon him, when you said, in a 
sentence of rare and fitting estimation, that what 
w^as said of him while he was living could hardly 
be added to when he had died. I know of nothing 
more graceful by way of sentiment, or more felicitous 
in expression, than your chosen words ; and I trust, 
sir, 1 may be allowed to congratulate you upon so 
just and eloquent a tribute to his incomparable worth 
and worthiness. 

When I said that 1 would lake, what 1 d(.)ubted 
not to hnd, a peQiiliai- pleasure in attempting to 



discharge the duty of this evening, I did not appre- 
ciate the difficulties that have embarrassed me. 
Words of high praise, deep affection and lofty 
admiration it would be an easy task to arrange in 
conventional order. But " why should calamity be 
full of words " ? To honor the citizen, all his fellow- 
citizens are agreed. The -eye of observation is not 
strained that marks the course of the just magis- 
trate. No voice dissents from the verdict of his 
acquittal of all that was not pure and upright in 
the discharge of every responsibility. His brethren 
consent that the learned and accomplished lawyer 
shall take the first place in their affectionate memory 
and esteem. But all this would only expose him to 
the hardship and peril of a separation from the love 
and honor that w^aited upon him constantly, and 
abandon his memory to the fate of a distant admira- 
tion, upon whose height it might lie white and pure 
as the Alpine fiower, but in the bitter cold of the 
upper air. The value of his friendship consisted 
in the countless opportunities that the generosity 
of his heart embraced. The graces of his nature 
were discovered where their praises were continually 
sounded — in daily intercourse. All that belonged to 
him were quahties above value, and everything that 
makes up our recollection of him was some one of 
those sweet and modest delicacies of character that 
would make the tenderest hand of its ex[)osure seem 
unchaste. He needs to stand upon no higher level 
than tlu? love? of all who knew him, nor to l)e seen 
in any kindlier light than is shed from that Lamp 



that was a lio-ht unto his feet. He walked throuorh 
Hfe as one might tread some graceful measure, 
with the law of commandment in his heart and a 
song of the sweetest testimonies upon his lips. It 
is only from an uninterrupted intercourse — for 
there was nothing about him that captivated on the 
instant — that the testimony can be gathered from 
which even an estimate may be formed of his charac- 
ter. And that testimony is of a peculiar kind. It 
is the testimony of going witnesses, and is being 
taken late in life's afternoon. Of his cotempo- 
raries, not a handful are left ; of his companions, but 
a few more. A new generation of men is on the 
stage of active life. A new professional race is in 
training. It is another day. Time is said to be an 
enemy. I give him hostages from the ranks Mr. 
McCall commanded by the supremacy cjf his own 
fitness and goodness, and which he inspired again 
and again by the display of his own noble courage. 
Few members of this Bar have sustained the peculiar 
relation of preceptor and professor to so large a 
number of their juniors ; and it would be a base 
thought to entertain of those who profited by his 
instruction that they could soon forget the lesson of 
his example. For he taught more by example than 
by precept. He dignified authority and ennobled 
maxim. The performance of his duties as an 
instructor passed the muster of that stern scrutiny 
to which he subjected the motive of every action in 
his life, and that he faithfully discharged them a 
grateful generation is on hand to testify. 



But, after all, what were the elements that com- 
bined in such singularly fit proportions to make his 
character eminently striking and effective among a 
multitude of other worthy and admirable examples 
that have been set and followed in our midst? For 
it is impossible to deny that such was the fact. The 
admission does not need to be extorted. It is not 
a charitable tribute to the dead. But in what particu- 
lars was it so ? Mr. McCall was not a man of 
more than ordinary endowments. His mental consti- 
tution was not nearly so vigorous and robust as 
many another's, who, at the time when he was in most 
active practice, won professional honors that escaped 
his ^grasp, even if his hand was ever extended to 
secure them. Was it a fortunate social |)osition ? 
Nearly, if not all, the men who secured distinction at 
the time shared that advantage with him equally. 
Ancestry had conferred upon them all the obliga- 
tion of distinguished names. Surely the posthu- 
mous son of a poor merchant who had withdrawn 
years before his death into a strict retirement, could 
have had no early infiuence or advantages that 
secured him exceptionally easy terms with fortune, 
or exaggerated his capacity beyond a fair estimate 
of the average ability — if it even conceded that. He 
had little wish or liking for prominence, though 
he exhibited all that virtuous propriety that makes 
ambition excellent. With a lofty indifference to 
the intolerant opinions of others, he was careful of 
nothing l)ut to deserve their respect li)' tlie lionest 
and timely expression of his own. Of the public 



lo 



offices he held, only one had any patronage and a 
very moderate compensation. Could it have been 
by eloquence ? Though his taste was always 
exquisite, his composition graceful and elaborate, his 
method elegant and his manner distinguished, he was 
inferior to many others who then delighted and com- 
manded a forum " where immortal accents glowed, 
and still the eloquent air breathes." What was it 
then ? Men talk of the average man, and in a way that 
seems to take for granted, or, at all events, rouses 
a very strong suspicion, that all his qualities are of 
the second class, and that he is intended to be put at 
a disadvantage by their comparison with some one or 
two that shine with conspicuous brightness in another. 
Mr. McCall is best described, to my mind, as a man fully 
up to the average measure of every private virtue and 
every public excellence. If he had been more generous 
than he was just, for instance ; if he had been less 
virtuous than he was modest ; if he had been more 
partisan as an advocate than he was prudent and 
judicious as an adviser ; if he could ever " upon the 
winking of authority, have understood the law ;" 
if he had ever forgotten that the natural man and 
the professional man were one and the same 
person, — there might have been more striking 
moments in his life — moments of crowded admira- 
tion — more effective dramatic opportunities ; but we 
might not then be able to say of him as we do now, 
and feel the pride an angel might take in saying it, 
that while no man is perfect, he, who was certainly 
the average best iif everything, was not very far from 



it. Nor Is the judgment to be entered upon a gen- 
eral average. That is altogether too vague and 
loose a phrase. Selected qualities only are appraised, 
and made to count in it. The standard varies even 
between particulars. It is general in every sense. 
But with Mr. McCall, not selected qualities, no matter 
how numerous and imposing, but every one that he 
possessed, whether of heart or mind, passes into the 
total at the appraisement of virtue itself. His life 
was a piece of concerted music. This is high praise, 
and it is hard to be impartial at the grave. But I ask 
you, who knew him, if I have spoken too well of him ? 
That it is striking, even to surprise, is in consequence 
of its entire truth and justice. It is not speaking no 
ill of the dead, but it is telling God's own truth about 
him. It was this sense of its perfect harmony that 
stamped upon his very countenance — integrity ; and 
I use the word in its oood old Latin meanine, — a man 
upright and whole. The disproportion of ingredients, 
the improper admixture of colors, the bad arrange- 
ment of light and shade, produce their effect at once. 
The shock is instantaneous. It does not hurt us, and 
even to feel it may not be an unpleasant experience. 
It may be of the very slightest kind, and perhaps may 
not swing through a wider arc than between praise 
and excuse; but the judge who is to give sentence 
upon the pure and blameless life that has passed now 
into his presence, has his seat upon the throne of the 
universe whose harmony is the praise of his glory. 
This leaves very little room l(j accommodate the dis- 
tinction between natural qualities and attainments ; 



which, I am sometimes inclined to think, is one of the 
most invicHous distinctions that can be made. For it 
supphes the most vicious source from which the idle 
and dependent draw comfort, if they ever feel com- 
punction, and the proud and silly replenish their 
vices as from a well-filled store-house. In fact, there 
can be no such distinction. It is imagined only to 
console the miseries of some poor conceit, or to serve 
as a lame excuse for some lamentable and utterly 
contemptible failure ; for it is to be remembered that 
until a man's natural powers, every one of them, are 
exhausted, he has no ritrht to rest even so much as 
to eat bread from the constant exercise of their full 
vigor. The full use of them is required at the hand 
of every man, and then his attainments will be the 
rich, purple fruit that hangs in heavy clusters from 
his own faithful and conscientious work. Certainly 
there never was a man who was more entirely just 
and true and honest to himself in this respect than 
Mr. McCall. And what he was in the community and 
to society everywhere, he was because, being always in 
attendance upon that business of his life, he could not 
then be false to any man. The value of character is 
always to serve for an example. The power of char- 
acter is another thing. It is an enabling power. It 
creates influence. It commands opportunity. It 
receives respect and confidence. It honors and is 
honored. But in the ambition they excite, and in the 
encouragement they give to others to hold them for 
an ensign^to imitate them — lies, the real value of the 
services that men of rare and conspicuous excellence 



and virtue render to their time. A man of virtue 
and goodness ensures a posterity of them by just as 
sure a law as keeps ahve his name and protects his 
property. He becomes the father of a family of vir- 
tues to bless and honor him from, one gfeneration to 
another. 

The Bar of Philadelphia, when Mr, McCall joined 
it, was a society of national fame and importance. Its 
illustrious rnembership was yet intact. Mr. Binney was 
still in the full possession of those mature powers that 
shortly afterwards " on his crowned head confirmed the 
crown." Mr, Serjeant was at his best; so was Mr, 
Ingersoll, Mr. McCall's preceptor, and, to the last, one 
of his most appreciative and ambitious admirers; and a 
host of other unforgotten worthies — names of bright 
renown — long since gathered to " the rest of their 
bones and soul's delivery," and their memories taken 
into the keeping of a grateful pride. Across the sea, 
the famous champion of the royal credit had just closed 
a brilliant argument in the only case where the credi- 
bility of a sovereign has been impugned, A great trav- 
eler had just written : " The lawyers are the only real 
aristocracy of America ; they comprehend nearly the 
whole of the respectability, talent and gentility of the 
United States," A curious and inquisitive thinker had 
barely finished his researches that traced one-sixth of 
the English peerage to the Bar. In fact, scarcely at any 
time has so much attention been called to the profes- 
sion generally, and at no time has it deserved the 
confidence and veneration of the public more than then, 
for it secured them by a display of the most pro- 

14 



found learning, the greatest rectitude of private 
character, the most finished and brilHant efforts of 
forensic skill and eloquence, as well as by a thorough 
and liberal education, that was as familiar with the 
polite letter as the black. Just at that time, Mr. 
McCall was entered as a student in the ofhce of Mr. 
Joseph R, Ingersoll, where he began his studies in 
company with some dozen or sixteen "young gentle- 
men," and where he continued them until his admission 
to practice as a member of the Bar in 1831. He 
came upon the scene with nothing in particular to 
indicate or recommend his subsequent career, except 
that everything might be confidently expected as the 
issue of his noble resolve " never to be clouded by 
dishonor or the consciousness of having done an ill 
deed." His entrance was as noiseless as his last foot- 
fall. He left it the Chancellor. Now what was it that 
accomplished that result ? The bestowal of that high 
honor was in acknowledgment of what special fitness ? 
Mr. McCall was not a great lawyer, but he was a 
great gentleman. Not in the miserable and corrupted 
sense that serves to mark some triflincr affectation of 
manner, a grace of bearing that is excused as cour- 
tesy, or some hypocrisy of manner that passes for 
gentility; but in the brave sense that "bears without 
abuse the grand old name." When Thackeray had 
finished his story of the most famous (because the 
most infamous) family of kings England ever had, 
and when he flung the last of them away from him 
in scorn and derision, he turned as if in search of 
rest, to find a true gentleman. He wrote of the 

15 



Nelsons, the Collingwoods, Judge Cleaveland, Southey 
and his Edith, and he said, " Without love, I can fancy 
no gentleman." And then, in all that brilliant com- 
parison, he asked " What is it to be a gentleman ?" 
Let hint answer. " It is to have lofty aims ; to lead a 
a pure life ; to keep your honor virgin ; to have the 
esteem of your fellow-citizens and the love of your 
fireside ; to bear good fortune meekly ; to suffer evil 
with constancy, and througli evil or good to maintain 
truth always." 

Sir, all the chancellors of this institution have 
been distinguished men. From 1827 to 1880, Mr. 
Rawle, Mr. Duponceau, Mr. Sergeant, Mr. Binney, 
Mr. Ingersoll, Mr . Meredith, and Mr. McCall, were 
chosen in succession. It is, indeed, " a shining list!' 

" They were the Day of those proud years. 
The Evening we : perchance the Night." 

Mr. McCall entered the Bar with this advantage 
that his family had been citizens of Philadelphia from 
the beginning of the last century, where the earlier 
branches that came to this country were largely and 
favorably known as prosperous and enterprising mer- 
chants, and were generally to be found filling the part 
of leading citizens at the town meetings when questions 
were under discussion that disturbed the peace of mind 
of the community, and called for the adoption of 
remedial measures of some sort. The name of some 
one or other of them is almost always to be found In 
the cotmclls of the city or In the Assembly, and on 
several occasions they served In the different mayor- 
alities. Nearly always they espoused the Royal cause 

16 



until near the close of the war, when they were occa- 
sionally found bearing- the American arms. The family 
is descended from the ancient border clan McCall, 
an offshoot of the famous McCauley clan, as it, in 
turn, had been of the clan McAulay, a portion of the 
divided clan of McGregor of Dumbartonshire, one of 
the most southern Highland clans, where the proper 
name is to-day in large landed possession, and from 
the neighborhood of which the McCalls came to this 
country. Probably all these clans had originally been 
one and the same ; but, however that may have been, 
the clan McCall does not exist now, nor, indeed, has 
it existed, ms a claii, for many years. Lord Macaulay 
traced his own descent to the same clan, and his 
great-grandfather's name was Aulay McCauley, so 
'^X singular a combination of the two names as to be 
hardly accidental ; and so did George McCauley, 
a London alderman, who died in 1778. They are 
reached, however, with entire certainty, early in the 
seventeenth century, when the records show that in 
1690 one Samuel McCall was married in Glasgow to a 
daughter of Robert Dundas, of the county Midlothian, 
a famous judge of the time, who seems to have enjoyed 
the reputation of a man of sound learning, and to have 
held a high social place. Mr. McCall was one of the 
largest and most responsible of the merchants of the 
city, and was reputed to be a man of wealth. Mrs. 
McCall, who was distinguished for her beauty, as well as 
for the grace and elegance of her manner, was the aunt 
of Viscount Melville. They had two sons, of whom 
Samuel remained in business with his father at Glasgow, 

17 



and Is the head of the branch of the Scotch McCalls, 
as they are called ; and George McCall, who came as a 
very young man to the United States, to engage in the 
business of a merchant. Their eldest daughter married 
Mr. William Herring, of Croydon, in Surrey, cousin 
of Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury ; and their 
second daughter married, in 1766, Sir Francis Baring, 
whose son, the first Lord Ashburton, married back into 
the family through the Binghams. Less difficulty than 
usual has attended the verification of these facts, as 
the McCalls have always been people of influence 
and position in the different communities where they 
have lived, and won wide respect by the dignity and 
propriety of their private characters ; taken, too, in con- 
nection with the fact that they seem to have been always 
people of large wealth. The records of the family at 
this time, and ever since, are comparatively full and per- 
fect. Soon after his arrival in this country, Mr. George 
McCall became a large colonial proprietor in Pennsyl- 
vania, and in Virginia as well, though subsequently all of 
them were confiscated on account of his Tory sentiments 
and affiliations durino- the war. He settled in Phila- 
delphia in the year 1701, and from that day to this the 
name he founded in this country never represented 
anything but a large measure of its culture and 
respectability. Influence it has always commanded 
by the highest personal excellencies and attainments. 
As soon as he was settled in Philadelphia he identified 
himself with old Christ Church; and a curious item 
of contribution to his history is found in a paper 
under date of May 7, 1739, preserved among the 



parish records, in which his name appears as a con- 
tributor to a fund that was being raised to build a 
new church. The extract is as follows; "The church 
wardens are required to give notice to Mr. George 
McCall, tenant of the parsonage house, that his rent 
from this date is to be paid into their hands for the 
use of the church." He was a man of much more — very 
much more — than the usual local prominence and 
importance. He was a member of councils, and of 
the Assembly in 1722, about which time he was married 
to Ann. a daughter of Jasper Yates, an ancestor of 
the learned Chief Justice, and one of the earliest 
reporters of the cases at law in Pennsylvania. Mr. 
McCall acquired much real estate in and about the city 
proper, and by deed dated June 20, 1735, for a consid- 
eration of two thousand o^uineas became the owner 
of a tract of land in Montgomery County containing 
about twelve thousand acres, much of it embracing 
the lovely valley of the Schuylkill, and not very far 
from that beautiful section of country that was the 
continual subject of the late Chancellor's enthusiastic 
admiration ; amonor whose hills and woods he made 
his home, and on one of whose sunny sides he died. 
The tract was for many years called "McCall's Manor," 
and in the county records, though they are not entirely 
satisfactory on the subject, there is mention of the 
McCall Forge on Manatawny Creek. Mr. McCall's 
name is found attached to a large number of petitions 
prepared and circulated by merchants and men of vari- 
ous business upon every conceivable subject of com- 
mon and general importance ; so that the first bearer of 

19 



the name in this city and neighborhood set the clear 
and unmistakable example of the duty to act in unison 
with his fellow-citizens upon public subjects where his 
probity of conduct and wise counsel could be of service 
to them, — an example that no one of his descendants 
has hesitated or forgotten to follow. Mr. McCall died 
in 1740 and his wife in 1744. They were both buried 
in the Christ Church burying-yard, which has ever 
since continued to be the family cemetery. Mrs. 
McCall is spoken of as having -been a lady of great 
personal beauty, of which her portrait by Hesselius 
is ofood evidence ; of charmino- address, and most 
admirable in the entertainment of the distinsfuished 
company of that time. They had ten children, of 
whom their daughter Catherine married her cousin, 
Mr. John Inglis ; a gentleman whose reputation as a 
wit and beau shows that, in his case, it must have been 
anything but a bauble. He was a partner of Mr. 
Samuel McCall of Glasgow, who had come to this 
country on a visit, but, upon his marriage, resolved to 
remain. Although he entered the firm of McCall and 
Inglis, merchants, his reputation as a man of fashion 
and leisure makes it scarcely probable that he was 
more than nominally a man of business. Peale painted 
his portrait for the "City Dancing Assembly," of which 
he was for years the manager and oracle. Yet he was 
a man who, in his time, accepted larger and heavier 
responsibilities than the management of a ball. He 
became a memljer of the St. (ieorgc's Society in 1792, 
was for several years collector of the port, and was 
elected to the Comnion Coimcil in 1745. A number of 



allusions to him in the correspondence of that day 
show him to have been a gentleman of rare amiability 
and numerous polite accomplishments, versatile and 
vivacious, a kind and faithful friend, and a general 
favorite. Of their children, John was made a British 
rear-admiral, and was constantly engaged during the 
War of the Revolution in operations upon the Amer- 
ican coast. Samuel died young, and is buried in 
Christ Church yard. George "of Abingdon," as he 
was called, lived till 1833. Catherine died in 1821 ; 
Mary married Colonel Julius Herring, a man of great 
wealth, and a large property owner on the island of 
Jamaica, whose daughter became the wife of the Hon. 
Henry Middleton, at one time the governor of South 
Carolina, and United States Minister to the court 
of St. Petersburo-. Their eldest daufrhter married the 
late Joshua Francis Fisher. Ann, who died in 1771, 
married an English merchant ; and Jaspar, a young 
man who is said to have been of singular promise, and 
gifted with fine natural abilities, together with some of 
the wit and versatility of his father, died at Philadelphia 
in the year 1847, during the first epidemic of yellow- 
fever. Mary married her cousin, a son of Mr. McCall 
of Glasgow, and settled in Philadelphia. Samuel died 
in 1762, a prominent and successful merchant, who 
was one of the sicrners to a remonstrance against 
levying a tax on imported slaves. He was a member 
of the councils in 1747. George, who died in 1758, 
was a member of the Assembly from 171 2 to 1720; a 
member of councils in 171 2, and alderman in 1719, 
and mayor of the city from 1723 to 1741. Archibald, 



who died in 1727, was die first East India merchant 
in Philadelphia, a man of great fortune, of whom it was 
said that his importations alone supplied the Province. 
He built and, for a time, lived in a house at the north- 
east corner of Third and Pine streets, and afterwards 
in the large house at the north-east corner of Second 
and Union streets, where General Gage, a relative of 
Mrs. McCall, made his headquarters. He was a man 
who lived in all the luxury of the time, and it is noted, 
in token of his magnificence and display, that he kept 
" one chariot or post chaise." He was on the patriot 
side in i 765 ; joined in the open revolt excited by the 
passage of the Stamp Act ; was one of the committee 
of seven appointed to wait upon the stamp agent 
on the arrival of the Royal Charlotte, though, for 
some reason, he afterwards espoused the Royal cause. 
He was a member of councils in i 764 ; joined the St. 
Andrew's Society in 1769. In 1762 he was married to 
Judith, the daughter of Peter Kemble, of Mount Kem- 
ble, N.J. They had eighteen children, of whom a daugh- 
ter, Mary, married Lambert Cadwalader, a distinguished 
and gallant colonel of the patriot forces ; a son George, 
who married Margaret, a daughter of George Clymer, 
the signer; and Peter, the father of the late Chancellor, 
who was born March 27, 1773, and died May 7, 1809. 
He was mairied to Sarah, a daughter of John Gibson, 
who was a member of councils for many years, and 
mayor of the city in 1771. Mr. McCall failed in 
business, and retired from Philadelphia into the 
country near Trenton, where he died, from the effects 
of a sunstroke, not long before the birth of his son Peter. 



'^<t 



Mr. Peter McCall was born near Trenton, where 
his mother had continued to Kve since her husband's 
death on the thirty-first day of August, 1809. What 
might be called the materials for the life of Mr. McCall 
it is almost impossible to collect beyond the mention 
of the few public offices he held, and the dates of a few 
occasions when he appeared quite prominently before 
his fellow-citizens. So sino-ular and unaccountable 
was his reserve upon the mention of whatever related 
to his merely private and personal history ; the small 
and relatively unimportant events of his life ; even 
the thousand little matters that most men take 
pleasure in recalling and recounting, that he would 
deny even to his friends the gratification and delight 
they would have had in such an expression of his 
confidence in the sympathy they felt with whatever 
caused him disappointment or brought him pleasure. 
But there is no doubt that it was the direct conse- 
quence of his devout wish to remain studiously unob- 
served, and of an idea that he conceived and adopted 
as the rule from which he never departed, — that 
he would say nothing about himself for the reason 
that it micrht seem to invite a like confidence from 
his companion that might be painful and distressing 
for him to give. For, really, it would be impossi- 
ble, — it would be out of the question, — to attempt 
to explain such peculiarities as these, — for there 
were several more, — unless we agree to recognize 
the fact, that whatever in him was unlike other men 
he had either insensibly acquired by the exercise 
of some sweet quality of his own patience, or quietly 

23 



adopted as die rule of a safe prudence that would 
prevent him trenching on the sensibilities of others. 
Even in those times when every human being turns 
by reason of being human to seek encouragement 
at least, if not more substantial help, from some other 
source than his own rugged power of endurance and 
strength of purpose, Mr. McCall was never found in 
quest of it. That he deeply appreciated it, and accepted 
it with a profound and touching gratitude when it was 
offered him, is perfectly true, and it was at all times 
his most religious care to make that abundantly 
evident ; but his lofty serenity never seemed to need 
it, nor his composure of mind or heart to be in the 
least degree deepened because of it. But there was 
nothing that in the least respect affected a sternness 
or severity in this ; it was a strange and infrequent 
union of a sensitiveness that felt the slio^htest wound, 
and a hi^h courao-e that was orateful to bear it alone. 
To this should be added that a nature so deeply 
religious as his was, — religious in the peculiar sense 
in which that word may appropriately be used, — 
felt the full sacredness of sorrow. It was to him one 
of the appointed mysteries of life and faith, and he felt 
as little right to complain of it as to attempt to pene- 
trate it. His hand would as soon have been put 
forth to remove it as it would to sweep its sacred 
symbols from an altar. In this, as in everything, what 
he most desired and what he most sought, was seclu- 
sion ; not a mysterious retirement, for he disliked 
loneliness, but what I may call a hospitable seclusion, 
— open as his house door to welcome friendship or 



entertain want, but impregnable as a mountain fortress 
against the advance of mere intrusion or idle spy- 
ing out, Mrs. McCall continued to live at Trenton 
while her son was preparing at a neighboring school 
to enter the College of New Jersey, from which he 
graduated in the year 1826. Though a small class, 
it was a very formidable one. Nearly all its members 
have been men of mark and position, and many of 
them very celebrated and distinguished. On its roll 
were Alexander, Bainbridge, Baylor, Hamilton, Clav- 
erhouse — Graham, Barclay Napton, Muhlenburg, 
Heister, Rideway, Yates, and many others. Through 
this formidable list Mr. McCall made his way to the 
first place, which he divided with the distinguished 
Archibald Alexander. Beyond this record of the 
class nothino- is known of Mr. McCall's life at collefje. 
Immediately upon his graduation Mrs. McCall removed 
to Philadelphia, and her son commenced his prepara- 
tion for the Bar, to which he was admitted in iS:;i. 
Very shortly afterwards he th'ew marked attention to 
himself by an exhibition of rare professional skill and 
eloquence in a capital case of great popular interest, 
in which he was the colleague of Mr. David Paul 
Brown. His practice increased rapidly in just pro- 
portion to the conscientious attention he gave to all 
its demands upon him. He [)rospered as men like 
him always do prosper, slowly but siu'ely. • Public 
attention was soon attracted to the pure and uj^right 
citizen, and he was called upon to serve in both 
branches of the city councils; and in 1S44 he was 
elected mayor of the city, upon his retirement h'om 

25 



which office he received a testimonial, through the 
press, from the citizens of Philadelphia, without political 
distinctions of any kind, to the absolute fidelity and 
impartiality with which he had discharged all his onerous 
and responsible duties. In 1846 Mr. McCall married 
a daughter of Colonel John Mercer, of Cedar Park, 
West River, Maryland, a descendant of the Mercers 
of Aldie, Scodand, — a gendeman well known in the 
society of his day. He was one of the garrison of 
Fort McHenry in the bombardment of 18 14. Mr. 
McCall was for more than fifty years a member of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and from 1831 
undl 1842 served as one of its "Executive Council." 
His confidence in its usefiilness, and his interest in its 
prosperity, remained unabated through his whole life, 
and among the last pages that his withered hand 
turned over were those of one of its publicadons. On 
November 29, 1832, he delivered before the Society 
an address on " The Progress of the Society of Friends 
in Pennsylvania, and their influence on our institutions 
— literary, benevolent and political," of which but a 
single cop)^ is in existence outside of the archives of 
the Society. It is said to have been remarkable for its 
thorough and wide preparation, its collection of valua- 
ble and curious details, and much new and important 
information upon the general subject. It was, too, an 
instance of that singularly beaudful and graceful free- 
dom of style that marked all his subsecjuent efforts by 
an elegant simplicity of arrangement, and a delightful 
ease of deHvery. 

in 18 ^S lie delivered an address 1)efore the Law 



26 



Academy upon the Judicial History of Pennsylvania; 
and on several other occasions he appeared, — though 
at long intervals, — to render it his services as a graceful 
and accomplished speaker. With the exception of 
the two public stations that I have said Mr. McCall 
occupied for a short time, his life was spent exclu- 
sively in the practice of his profession, quietly 
and unobtrusively, but with almost unexampled 
painstaking and fidelity. No cause ever suffered at 
his hands. No client ever was the loser by his neglect. 
He addressed no bench that he did not instruct. He 
retired from before no jury which, if he failed to con- 
vince, he had not charmed and delighted. His historian 
tells us that on one occasion, when Cicero wished to 
call marked attention to the justice of his cause, it 
was conspicuous that he wore a zuhite toga, and deliv- 
ered the famous speech, a fragment of which has been 
preserved under the title of the " Oration of the White 
RoheT That was precisely the effect Mr. McCall never 
failed to produce upon an audience ; but it was not 
reached by a mere trick of dress or show of manner ; 
not by any action that a man might play, but by the 
influence he exerted in the exhibition of his most ardent 
purpose, and by the courage he displayed in the 
fearless defense of those convictions which with him 
were nothing less than moral intuitions, fortified by the 
most patient and diligent preparation. Whately said : 
"It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side ; and 
another thing to wish to be on the side of truth." 
That sentence might have been written to describe Mr. 
McCall. For him it was not enough that the presen^ 

27 



tation of a case need not be entirely wrong. His 
intolerance of suspicion detected at a glance that it 
was not entirely right. This alone describes the kind 
of influence he exerted. This explains the power of 
his mere presence. It was remembered by those who 
had heard Lord Chatham, that there was something 
finer in the man than anything he said, and Emerson 
adds, "There is no true eloquence unless there is a 
man behind the speech." Mr. McCall was not a lawyer 
of celebrated cases, and he never answered to one 
that required and clamored for immediate trial to 
sustain or satisfy the excitement it had created. The 
populace seldom heard him. His peculiar tastes, his 
habit of tedious preparation, his aversion to being hur- 
ried, his contempt of half-done work, all unfitted him 
for practice of that kind. He was pre-eminently the 
adviser ; the safe counsellor ; and especially is this 
true in the case of his juniors at the Bar, even to the 
youngest ; no difficulty embarrassed them to which 
he was not ever ready to lend a most attentive ear, 
and give, as only he could give, the needed sugges- 
tion, accompanied with so much that was gracious and 
kindly in tone, and full of hearty and generous interest. 
Perhaps the two most remarkable traits in the 
character of Mr. McCall were care and couraoe. Care 
is perhaps not the right word, but caution would 
be a worse one, because it might intimate some meas- 
ure of timidity, from which he was absolutely free ; 
while prudence is altogether too staid a virtue to stand 
for that maiden-like suspicion that heard afar oft the 
footsteps of an insidious approach. This kind of care 

28 



may, perhaps, be best described as a conscientious 
economy. It was a saving of small things ; odds and 
ends that make up the contents of most waste-baskets ; 
small scraps of useful information cut from papers 
and magazines, and preserved in such a way as to 
make them easily accessible ; occasional thoughts and 
ideas of his own, when he would be at leisure, or off 
on one of his long walks, jotted down in his memo- 
randum book, and the memoranda, if he thought 
them worth it, afterward arranged methodically. And 
many other such trifles. But with time he was posi- 
tively miserly. It is not too much to say he was never 
idle. As quaint old Fuller said of Sir Francis Drake, 
" He hated nothincr so much as idleness." And, of 

o 

course, just as a miser's eye would see a penny where 
no one else would have found it in the most arduous 
search, Mr. McCall hoarded up a store of leisure 
moments that he spent upon studies in art, general 
literature, and either in acquiring or replenishing some 
piece of useful knowledge. And this was true of his 
business habits as well, only that, because there it was 
exercised about the concerns of others, it was perhaps 
more strict and jealous. Nothing was ever deputized. 
He did not know what it meant to be constructively 
present. In a word, his care amounted to watchfulness. 
It was alert. Nor was it in any way or to the least 
degree that kind of care by which men are sooner or 
later worn out, — the restless, fear-/?^/ care, holding out 
its ravelled sleeve to beg an alms of sleep. The care 
that kills. To this fatal malady how many of our 
profession have yielded ! How many yaung men of 



29 



fair promise, and with a certain future at the Bar, have 
been stricken down by it ! How many more there 
have been whose untiring industry was just beginning 
to tell in the eagerness with which their services 
were sought, and in the full measure of compensa- 
tion that was pouring its benefits upon them ! But 
his was the kind whose very exercise brought rest 
and ease of mind. There was not a sign of worri- 
ment in it. There was no affectation, no parade, about 
it. You discovered it only by observing what was 
always so striking in him, — that peculiar readiness, 
the entire absence of confusion, and his instant com- 
mand of an accurate and felicitous expression. It 
was good order kept in order. But by far the most 
affecting exhibition of this pre-eminent characteristic 
of Mr. McCall was the care he took to JuLvt nobody 
by zvord or deed. Although the virtuous habits of his 
life at all times prevented him from any thoughtless or 
ill-considered talk, yet he seenied to know by inspi- 
ration when the expression of an ordinary opinion, 
or a reference to an accidental circumstance, might 
wound some tender sensibility or awaken a painful 
reminiscence, and then, with the most admirable and 
adroit management, he would come to the rescue, and, 
before his gentle intrusion had incurred the least sus- 
picion of an interference, the danger had been long 
averted. And especially was this true of him in his 
intercourse with any who occupied a station in life 
less fortunate than his own. He has left behind him 
no truer friends — there are few who will feel his loss 
more deeply — than his simple country neighbors. No 

30 



one of them who addressed him was ever tor a 
moment allowed to feel that he was his inferior, except 
— and we must have felt that — in real goodness, unaf- 
fected courtesy and kindness of heart. His illness 
was the chief of their humble concerns ; and many an 
eye has filled that caught the gesture of his wasted 
hand waving, when he could not speak, a " good day." 
But something must be said of the peculiar coiwage 
that was an equally conspicuous quality of Mr. McCall. 
It was not only the personal bravery that refused a 
second thought to the risk of life or limb, and that 
disdained the protection of his body against violence. 
He never seemed to dream that any hand could 
"stagger thus liis person." Bravery is only the oppo- 
site of fear, and of fear he had no conception. Once 
to have seen him afraid would have been not to know 
the man. But courage is a very different quality. It 
is never wasted on a foot-pad. It is that personal 
and incommunicable quality that casts in its lot 
with virtue — 

" Nor praises more itself for hero-deeds, 
Than stones for weight, or open seas for tide." 

Often has Mr. McCall displayed this courage. Many 
a cruel blow has been dealt his noble heart that would 
have been manlier if delivered on his face. Many a 
bitter word has reached his ear only to find that some 
sweet promise had outrun it. It was the courage of 
conviction, of high principles, of lofty aims ; the cour- 
age of a noble nature " wrapped," as he said himself 
on one occasion of another, " in stern integrity, high 
above the reach of passion and of prejudice." The 

31 



ranks of virtue are never thinned by desertion, nor by 
fiery darts or prosperous weapons. To have joined 
them is to have secured an earnest of victory. 

We sometimes say ot men who excel in virtue, 
when we wish to souncf the highest note of their 
praises, that they are " ideal ;" that such a rare and 
felicitous combination of excellencies is phenomenal. 
We keep a grateful place for them in our memor)', 
"therein to be quietly inurned." When Lord Bacon 
said, "There is in some men even by nature a disposi- 
tion toward goodness," he added, " there is also a 
habit of goodness directed by right reason." Mr. 
McCall had both ; but what his life was in pardcular an 
example of, was that habit of goodness, which became 
a second nature, scarcely less beautiful than the first 
"disposition toward goodness." He reached his place 
by honesty, courtesy, sound learning, the exercise of 
constant care, a love of truth, and die display of noble 
courage. To say more here might be to draw too 
heavily upon the fund of a long, familiar, and devoted 
friendship. To leave him now is not to leave him at 
the mercy of any human being, nor to desert his 
memory in the presence of any treacherous foe. b itt)' 
years of professional life, crowded with many cares, 
have given in their testimony. We recall with pleasure 
many generous friendships, we think with pride of 
some great names, we grieve over many losses. The 
water-clock is filled from the eyes. These meetings 
have been frecpient of late, some of them too recent 
to allow even the mention of many good and honor- 
able names. England has just laid her great Chief 

32 



Justice in Kensal Green, and the old Christ Church 
burying-ground in Philadelphia is filling up with rich 
mould. 

And now, gentlemen, the task you invited me to 
perform is done. The pure and stainless life has been 
graciously permitted a peaceful and painless death. 
The past is safe. Weakness and disease, that advanced 
at first under the protection of a flag of truce, too 
soon insisted upon the terms of an unconditional 
surrender. The enemy was within the citadel. Calm 
and undisturbed as its own unfathomable depths he 
was carried to the sea. Before entering upon 
the new eternity he delighted to look upon the old. 
Where no shore was to be seen, his preparing eye 
descried one whereon there was a fire of coals lighted. 
He took counsel of the troubled sea as he was being 
led beside the still waters. He had no wants, for the 
tenderest solicitude anticipated them. He had no 
wish, for the sweetest piety foresaw it. Loved and 
loving, blest and blessing, — " if 'twere now to die, 
'twere now to be most happy." And yet he longed 
to die at home — "the home of an ancient peace." To 
rest was his one thought, and to rest abroad was 
impossible. For days he lay at home without pain, 
but in extreme and terrible exhaustion; yet through it 
all himself- — thoughtful, with an exquisite care of every 
one, too sensible of the grief that was near at hand 
even to refer to it, yielding, gentle, patient, — what 
wealth of words can do it justice ! 

The end came at last. His commission had been 
withheld from the angel of the sickle till the harvest 

33 



of the fields had been gadiered ; and then in mortal 
weakness, but with a grand and loft}' indifference, he 
onl)' consented to death because it had no dominion 
over him. With every sweet and loving care in wait- 
ing upon his dying wish, before his children and his 
children's children, with the blessinor of all who knew 
him upon his head, and a profound charity for all 
whom he had known in his heart; about the time of 
the evening oblation, in that strange space of half an 
hour, when "there is silence in heaven," and "not one 
plumed pinion stirs," the curfew bell called the atten- 
dants of his life, Love and Honor, to cover up the 
purest fire that ever burned in human breast. "Thus 
came Faithful to his end." 



34 



Press of 

Times IViiitiii^llnuse, 

7iS Cheslimt St., 

Philadelphia. 



